What It Is
by Schermionie
Summary: 'It is madness, says reason. It is what it is, says love.' - Eric Fried. :Daphne/Seamus in 50 sentences, for tat1312 and the 1sentence community at livejournal.:


Disclaimer: I definitely don't own the lines from the poem used below. But who owns Harry Potter? That's a tough one, but looking around, I don't think I do. Maybe I should Google it?

Challenge 1: the 1sentence community at livejournal (50 themes; one sentence each), with the Gamma prompt table.

Challenge 2: Daphne/Seamus, post-Hogwarts, fits into canon, for tat1312's cravings.

A/N: So, yes, this is dedicated to tat1312. She is just that awesome.

Please be aware that the time-line of the story isn't always linear. Overall it's a story that goes from start to finish, but there are some jumps back and forwards, and while most sentences either follow on directly or relate to a previous one, some don't. I have tried to make it as clear as possible - my advice is to just not think about it too much. It's only by thinking that we can become confused, after all...

Hope you enjoy! :)

* * *

_It is madness_

_says reason_

_It is what it is_

_says love_

_- from 'What It Is' by Eric Fried (translated into English by Stuart Hood)_

* * *

**-Ring-**

"No man I've met will ever put a ring on my finger," she'd said - but then Seamus had always liked a challenge.

**-Hero-**

Apparently he's _a_ hero, but he's not _her_ hero... (yet).

**-Red- **

They barely even knew each other, but when Seamus saw her with another man, he also saw _red_.

**-Drink- **

Wait, had he told her he _loved_ her last night? !

**-Hurricane- **

"If I'd 'swept through your life like a hurricane', Finnigan, you'd probably be dead."

**-Cold- **

"Maybe if you weren't so cold to me all the time, I wouldn't have given you one."

**-Fever- **

She'd told him that was bullshit, but before she'd got this fever, things _had_ started to heat up a little...

**-Memory- **

"Someday we'll look back on this," he said as he scowled at the embarrassingly stupid news headline (_Irish Team Manager "Managing" Other Team? !_) and the terribly inaccurate and speculative article about their relationship that followed, "and we'll laugh."

**-Wings- **

Daphne didn't need to remind him that the English Quidditch team had got the newest and best _Wings_ brooms well before the Irish team had, but she often did.

**-View- **

There is only one view better than the view from a broomstick fifty foot up in the air: Daphne Greengrass, unable to think of a comeback to something he's said.

**-Silk- **

Astoria looks better in silk - in fact, she looks better than Daphne in most things - but Seamus barely looks at her.

**-Music- **

If their life together had background music, the movements would be: peace, bickering, more bickering, make-up sex, more of that, even more where that came from, bickering again... peace.

**-Cover- **

Her sharpness is just a cover for the fact that she fancies him - or at least, that's _his_ theory.

**-Promise- **

A promise is a promise; too bad she's a Slytherin, and doesn't feel too bad about breaking those.

**-Candle- **

He only leaves the table and the empty chair opposite him when the candle's blown out...

**-Dream- **

Dean hesitantly broaches the topic of a Muggle psychologist named Freud, but Daphne quickly shuts him up before he can go into too much detail about what he thinks all her dreams about Seamus and exploding wands mean.

**-Sacred- **

Maybe he's had better nights, but they'd both been a bit tipsy; and anyway, the morning after has never been as sacred as this one feels.

**-Farewells- **

Well, until they've woken up properly and Daphne's remembered who's sharing her bed, anyway; then comes the shock that she'd finally caved in, and then all that blame for that caving in falling (unfairly!) on him, and then him getting the hell out of there until she's calmed down enough to acknowledge that actually all she really wants is another go.

**-Talent- **

They're the two most talented Quidditch team managers around, and don't they know it.

**-Silence- **

Sometimes the silence between them is peaceful and comfortable, but the silence after Seamus meets Daphne's parents is more awkward than the time he related the Draco the Amazing Bouncing Ferret anecdote in front of the entire Malfoy family, complete with laughter and expressive hand signs.

**-Journey- **

She'd sent him packing after he did that, of course.

**-Strength- **

Yet, by some strength of his will, and a weakness in her own she'd not even known existed until that moment, she'd taken him back eventually.

**-Dance- **

Seamus has never been a dancer, but all Daphne had needed to do to turn him into one was put on _that_; and then, they were close together, revolving on the spot in their own little world.

**-World- **

And if they _came_ from such _different_ worlds, why did they fit together like this?

**-Forgotten- **

"I never forgot you weren't a pure-blood, you idiot - I just stopped caring!"

**-Mask- **

She's different around her family, and Seamus doesn't like it at all.

**-Run- **

"Your sister and Malfoy are coming for dinner? !"

**-Formal- **

It's a very formal dinner that Daphne makes endless preparations for... shame about that pudding hitting Malfoy in the face at the end of it.

**-Laugh- **

"Laugh all you will, Daphne, but Mother and Father are getting even more angry about your... choices, now."

**-Lies- **

"...It's just a fling, Astoria: breaking up with him will be easy."

**-Forever- **

_"Which commitment means more to you?"_ Daphne wrote, and writing the six letters that came next was the hardest written assessment she had ever been set.

**-Overwhelmed- **

"How could you choose _him_ over _me_, Daph?"

**-Whisper- **

"...You have everything else, though, don't you Astoria?"

**-Talk- **

There's a lot of talking going on, but in the end, it's not reason that makes the decision for Daphne: _it is what it is_.

**-Hope- **

Seamus hopes she knows that he's happy she chose him, but not happy that there had to be a choice, not happy that this could make her unhappy.

**.**

**-Unknown-**

The trigger is unknown - _Daphne's estrangement? too many arguments? _time_?_ - but somehow things aren't right anymore.

**-Gravity-**

Relationships go up and down and theirs is down.

**-Highway-**

"It's my way or the highway, Daphne."

**.**

**-Breathe-**

..._But_ maybe all they need to do is just breathe, and think, and decide what's best - _together_.

**-Lock-**

Maybe they just need to lock the bad things away again and focus on the good, so that they can move on from this bad patch and never regret their choices again.

**-Eclipse- **

Maybe that way, everything good for them will eclipse the bad.

**.**

**-Fire-**

There's a fire in them as their eyes meet across the pitch: it's a battle, alright, and on the battleground, prior relationships don't matter - they're not boyfriend and girlfriend here, they're bitter rivals out for each other's blood.

**-Fall-**

Maybe it was here that he fell for her, though, because she never looks quite this stunning anywhere else.

**-Midnight-**

"This is no time to be _up_," Daphne said with a wry look at his clock, and then something else of his that rhymed with that.

**-Temptation-**

Seamus presented an argument for the opposite opinion; he won.

**-Ice-**

Daphne fell over on some ice yesterday, and she's sure her bum's bruised; Seamus insists on a _thorough_ examination.

**-Body-**

He knows her body intimately now, and she knows his - fortunately, they both still like what they see.

**-Search-**

See, the search for Daphne's heart had taken a long time, so now that he's found it, he doesn't really want to let it go.

**-Wait-**

And hey, good things really _did_ come to boys who waited.

**-Box-**

"There better not be a ring in there," she jokes.


End file.
